oters having
qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of
the Legislature of the State where they reside, following in this the
language of the Constitution; these voters, however, to be further
limited in their descriptions and definitions as being male citizens
of the United States over twenty-one years of age. Now, whether the
proposition be a good one or not; whether the limitation be such as
should commend itself to the masses of our people, I will not for the
present inquire. I will only remark they have seemed to me to embrace
as many qualifications as we ought to include when we are going to lay
down a new organic law on this subject."

An objection urged by Mr. Schenck against the plan proposed by the
committee was, that it failed to offer inducements for a gradual
enfranchisement of the negro. He said: "Now, sir, I am not one of
those who entertain Utopian ideas in relation, not merely to the
progress, but to the immediate change of sentiment, opinions, and
practice among the people of those States that have so lately been
slave States, and so recently in rebellion. I believe that, like all
other people, their growth toward good and right and free institutions
must necessarily be gradual; and if we pass the amendment which I have
proposed, or any thing similar to it, and say to them, 'You shall have
representation proportioned to the portion of your population to which
you extend this inestimable franchise,' my belief is that they will
not, on the next day after it becomes a part of the organic law of the
United States, at once enfranchise all the negroes in their midst. I
am not sure that they ought to do it; but we are dealing with the
matter now as it presents itself as a practical question. What will
they probably do? My belief is, that if you persuade them to do right,
if you hold out to them an inducement for letting their negroes vote,
and striking out these disqualifications and putting all upon the
basis of manhood, they will probably begin, after the amendment
becomes part of the organic law, by extending this right to those who
have acquired certain property; perhaps they will also extend it,
after awhile, to those who have certain qualifications of education.
However they may proceed, whether rapidly or slowly, it will be a work
of progress and a work of time. But by this amendment you would say to
them, 'We do not want you to enter upon any such gradual bringing up
of thes